Alexander's Aim

NZ Truth, Issue 1147, 24 November 1927, Page 6

Alexander's Aim

WHILST searching around the haunts of companionable folk m

Dunedin the other day, we stumbled over the arguments of a hardhitting philosopher, by name William Alexander.

Although skilled m the arithmetics, Schoolmaster Alexander has that irreproachable faculty of shedding thetcoat of didactic scrutiny as soon as "close books" time has come, and when, very much like the rest of us, he 1b just plain "Bill" for the nonce.

At the same time, though, his secretaryship of the Athenaeum Library ln Dunedin's Octagon distils for him the sweet spirit of mental exhilaration and neighborly interest, so that m administrative co-operation he achieves pleasure for himself and an understanding of his fellow- {Scotsmen's literary inclinations.

If physical proportions are reliable testimonials, then he must have been a Hercules m the scrums of Glasgow University. If his fellows were similarly endowed, opposing vanguards should have definite recollections of a human Juggernaut, disbanded these twenty years or so.

Sometimes, m cementing together a few honest facts about a man and his life, the literary likeness seems akin almost to a panegyric, but is', nevertheless, an unwarped reflection In the mirror of truth. •

If, then, we appear to have held over long to the crescendo stop m pealing the praises of one "Bill" Alexander, it is because the man himself is sitting aloft the peak of unusual spirits, whence he disseminates the philtres of common understanding, practical philosophy and goodr'-natured authority.